Activision is placing a $500 million budget on Bungie’s first person shooter Destiny.
Bungie has a good record of delivering well defined video games such as title like Halo. Destiny’s $500 million budget, which includes development costs and marketing, skyrockets past the amount Hollywood spends on some of its biggest firms.
“If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP,” Kotick told the Milken conference. “The stakes for us are getting bigger.”
“Over the long term, we expect the ultimate product costs to be roughly in line with other Triple-A titles.”
Analysts say that in order to break even, Activision would need to sell about 15 to 16 million units of a $60 game. But as Kotick mentioned in Activision’s last quarterly financial reports, he fully expects Destiny to be the company’s “next billion dollar franchise.”
Destiny launches its beta this Summer with a full release on current and next-gen consoles this September 9.